Michael Vaz
‘One man’s food is another man’s poison’ and ‘one man’s luck is another man’s funeral’, are the oft-used proverbs referring to the same point. In the context in what I am writing it implies that what one group holds in high esteem may mean nothing to another. Alternatively, something that offends the sentiments of one community may be overlooked by another, as it may have nothing to do with its religion, caste, creed, race or ethnicity.
The row over the release of the Bollywood movie Padmavat (originally titled Padmavati) has stirred parts of north India, as the Shree Rajput Karni Sena has opposed the release of the film. All this mayhem after the Censor Board of Film Certification had cleared the film after a few cuts and its renaming to Padmavat. Even the Supreme Court had given green signal for the release of the film all over the country from January 25. The basic point of argument is when the censor board had cleared a movie for public exhibition the states have no business to ban it. We have to repose faith in the authority which has been empowered to review the film and decide accordingly.
However nothing seems to have changed the minds of the agitating groups. Despite the Supreme Court order movie houses in at least four BJP-ruled states Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Jharkhand have expressed their unwillingness to screen the film fearing backlash from the Rajput community. Now Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have moved the Supreme Court arguing that though it is the duty of the state to maintain law and order and give protection to the people associated with the film, they also have the power to suspend the exhibition of the film in the light of the sporadic riots against the film.
It is also a matter of concern that the Kshatriya community has sent a letter written in blood to the President and Prime Minister seeking ban on the film. Even worse is the fact that a video has emerged in the social media threatening to destroy the Parliament and the Supreme Court if the film is released. It should be noted that a dream sequence in the film showing the Rajput queen in love with the Muslim invader Alauddin Khilji is the blight hurting the Hindus. In the past we had the movie Da Vinci Code, which was banned in some states as Christians opposed it. To top it all, the book Satanic Verses was banned by the Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress rule as it hurt the Muslims. That’s in a nutshell the offshoot of artistic freedom.
